But the real answer is not how many, but how does that number compare to people’s expectations. Earlier this year, some speculated that the real figure needed to be 300,000, or even more.That’s why some cattle producers got their knickers in a knot, even though CWT in its six-year history has taken out just 275,000 milk cows since 2003.

On the other hand, the 103k figure is 40,000 more than the previous largest-ever round, back in 2004.It’s a big down payment on the reduction that needs to happen in the national dairy herd, and as the announcement makes clear, it’s just the beginning of a process of reducing the herd in 2009, not the culmination of CWT’s milk supply reduction efforts.

So reaction to this number is all about expectations.Hopefully those who know the business the best recognize that this is a Goldilocks figure:not too high, not too low, just the right temperature.

The important thing to remember about CWT is that for every dairy farmer whose bid was tentatively accepted on Wednesday, there are 150 others who will still be in the business of dairying, and hopefully their lot will be easier in 2009 as milk production slows and prices respond

Answering Thursday's question: usually the final acceptance rate is around 98% of the initial accepted bids. In terms of the series question, you have to keep in mind that this round will remove 66% more cows than we ever have done before. So it's a big undertaking, and while we have contract employees to help with the tagging, CWT is a bare-bones enterprise: we have no exclusive full-time employees who work on it. The other reason, more importantly, is that because this is funded with farmers' money, we have to be careful not to overpay for the cows. Paying $2500 per animal for each 18,000 pound per year herd would have removed more cows, but it's a bad investment. You can expect to see some additional culling this spring and summer by farmers who were holding on to cows during the bid period, only to learn in the coming month that their bid was not accepted. So the cows will come, one way or the other.